1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to animal husbandry, and more particularly to the provision of expandable feed openings in feeding devices having a guard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Throughout the ages mankind has relied upon animals as a vital source of food and raw materials. While pre-historic man is thought to have been a hunter and gatherer, reliance upon random events of nature has not been accepted by mankind. Instead, people have developed ways to keep and care for animals to ensure their availability, which provides synergistic benefit to both man and animal. This is referred to as animal husbandry, which is simply caring for the needs of animals. Animal husbandry is very old, almost certainly predating any written histories.
A critical component of animal husbandry is providing a food source for the animals, regardless of the season. In many locales and climates, this will generally require the gathering and storing of food to carry the animals through inclement seasons and periods of weather. One way this is practiced is by growing a crop that is abundant beyond the immediate or short term needs of the animals during milder seasons. The excess crops are then collected or harvested for consumption or storage until needed. A typical crop for ruminant animals is hay that is cut, dried, and then baled.
During periods where ruminant animals such as cattle are unable to forage for grasses, alfalfa or other suitable foods, a farmer will move one or more hay bales into the field. The bale may simply be dropped onto the ground, and the animals will gather around the bale and eat the hay. Unfortunately, many of these animals will selectively pick the most desirable hay out of the bale, and will commonly drop the rest onto the ground. Since the animals are congregated next to the bale, any hay that is dropped tends to be trampled into the ground, ultimately to spoil and become waste. The percentage of hay dropped by the animals is surprisingly high, and can typically amount to more than half of the feed. Clearly, such large losses of feed are undesirable.
To reduce the amount of wasted hay or other feedstock, a number of animal feeders and racks have been devised. A common type of feeder has a plurality of generally vertically extending bars, resembling a grille or jail bars. The animal will necessarily insert their head between the bars in order to reach the feed. Since only their head will preferably pass through the bars, the animals are prevented from directly trampling the feed. Furthermore, any loose feed that drops from their mouths or falls when they are biting adjacent feed will preferably fall inside the feeder perimeter. This dropped feed may then be eaten by the animals at a later time, with less spoilage than if the animals were given unrestricted access to the feed. Furthermore, these types of feeders also help reduce crowding between animals, such as one animal crowding another out from the feed. Exemplary patents that illustrate this “jail bar” or grille type of feeder or rack, the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference, include U.S. Pat. No. 36,905 by Hawkins, entitled “Sheep rack”; 42,927 by Close, entitled “Feed rack”; 45,011 by Allerton, entitled “Sheep rack”; 54,371 by Lahm, entitled “Sheep rack”; 62,522 by Blanchard, entitled “Feed rack”; 64,983 by Ives, entitled “Sheep rack”; 69,976 by Febles, entitled “Combined sheep rack and trough”; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,827,876 by Trobaugh, entitled “Poultry feeder”. As may be apparent from the foregoing patents, these types of feeders may be stationary, movable, or may be provided as wheeled, mobile vehicles.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,690,762 by Weaber, entitled “Hog trough”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, illustrates collapsible partitions that perform a similar function for hog troughs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,449 by Harton, entitled “Portable hay feeder”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, illustrates a covered feeder having swinging gates which are sized to prevent the animals from reaching their heads through. Instead, the animals must swing the gates and eat through them, presumably containing the feed within the feeder. Delichte in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,609, entitled “Livestock feeder for cylindrical bales”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a plurality of inclined outer bars and an inner frame. The outer frame also includes a skirt adjacent the ground that further prevents the animals from undesirably trampling the feed. A hay bale is placed within the inner frame, and as animals feed, the gap between inner and outer frames serves as a collector for dropped feed that is protected from trampling. U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,067 to Akins, entitled “Feeder for animals”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a plurality of inwardly bent bars that again help to drop the feed within the feeder, while reducing contact between the animal's shoulders and the feeder. U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,684 to Dyson, entitled “Hay feeder for livestock”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a sheet plastic feeder that is designed to flex rather than break when an animal applies large forces thereto.
Each of these prior art grill-type feeders suffer from a common limitation. The grill must be sized to correspond to the size of the animal's head. As may be apparent, adult animals vary in size, as do juveniles, and juveniles differ in size from adults. Consequently, these prior art feeders must be sized to the particular animals, and to whether the feeder is serving calves, for example, or cows. As will be appreciated, the animals themselves do not know or appreciate that one feeder is designed for them, while another is not. Since juveniles tend to be smaller, they may easily pass their head through an adult feeder, and in some cases might be able to pass more of their body through, such as one or both of their front hooves. This can lead to adult animals getting their heads trapped or entangled in a juvenile feeder, and juveniles entering into the feed area of an adult feeder and becoming entrapped therein. As a result, the farmer may have to separate the herd based upon animal size, and may further be required to purchase feeders of different sizes for different sizes of animals. Nevertheless, the improved collection and protection of loose hay far outweighs the disadvantages, and these types of feeders have become preferred equipment to reduce feed waste.
Reducing feed waste not only has the apparent benefit of reducing the amount of feed that must be provided to the animals for the growth and development, but also in the amount of waste that must be removed from the vicinity of the feeder. In other words, not only does higher feed waste require the acquisition of more feed, it also requires the removal of greater volumes of waste as well.
In the Journal of Animal Science, a plurality of researchers from the University of Minnesota reported their results obtained from testing various horse feeders. The article, authored by Martinson et al and entitled “Round-bale Feeder Design Affects Hay Waste and Economics During Horse Feeding,” was published in 2012 in volume 90 on pages 1047-1055, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference. The present inventor's horse feeder reduced the mean percentage of hay waste to the lowest of any of the nine feeders tested, at five percent. In contrast, the no-feeder control experienced a 57 percent hay waste. The authors identified that feeders that did not allow the horses to immerse their heads into the bale, and instead limited them to pulling small mouthfuls from the bale, had less feed waste. While this technique has proven to be immensely beneficial in reducing feed waste, the present invention seeks to further reduce feed waste, and to provide a feeder that is compatible with a wide variety of animal species and sizes.
While my horse feeder used in the test limits horses to only get their noses in through the rods, cattle require much wider openings. This is due in part to the ability of cattle to put their head into a narrow opening, but from which they cannot always get their head back out.
In addition to the foregoing patents and article, Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is incorporated herein by reference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms used herein.